Seconds turned into minutes; minutes turned into hours. And every hour that passed made me more and more nervous about what could have happened to Desi and mother. Whatever kind of plan Andrea was scheming, and whatever mental state that Elise was in had me sick to my stomach. It was to the point where I couldn’t even think properly, my mind was so crowded with negative thoughts and was filled with anxiety because there was nothing that I could’ve done to change the situation. I felt useless and powerless.

There was a knock on the door.

“Hello, may I come in?” Someone said.

“Yes, you can. It’s open.” I said.

The door opened and it was a woman with a clipboard in her hand. I didn’t know what she was doing or why she was coming into the room to speak to me, but I guess since I had been sitting in my anxiety-filled thoughts for what seemed like an eternity; it felt good to actually see a face that wasn’t Andrea’s or Elise’s. But it wasn’t Desi or my mother, so the outcome was bittersweet.

“Hello, my name is Natalie Akane. I’m a social worker for the city and I was coming to speak to you today about the situation with your family. I had heard that you had recently dealt with some rare behavioral differences with both your sister and your cousin, is that correct?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“Great, I’m glad to be speaking with you.”

“This opportunity means a lot to me, thank you.”

“Of course, now can you tell me a little bit about your family and your situation and why you’re here right now?”

I gathered my thoughts together as Mrs. Akane sat down and pulled out a pen to begin writing whatever I had to say. Hopefully, this person can give me some answers as to what to do about my family.

“Well, to start, I have always had a bad feeling about my step-aunt, Andrea Wilson. That’s her name by the way.” I said. “Ever since I met her when I was twelve, her demeanor and persona was just off-putting to me; I could never explain why I felt that way about her, you know?”

“I see.” Mrs. Akane said. “What kind of feelings did you feel towards her?”

“Mainly suspicion, manipulation, and deception. Nothing really good towards her. Maybe this is pretty small and minute, but she decided to take my sister out of her bed when she was a little kid and decided to play with her even though she was clearly sleeping.”

“Why did that bother you so much?”

“Because usually how my sister and I operated was that I would wake up before her and walk to her room and just watch her sleep, you know, just to make sure that she was okay. Then I would usually walk into her room and sit on the floor or lay on the floor next to her bed until she woke up and then we would start the day together. Or if I didn’t wake up before her, she would come into my room and wake me up or hop in the bed with me and go back to sleep.”

“Well, that seems like a nice little routine that you two had going for you.”

“It was. And for the most part, if I wasn’t there in my room or if I wasn’t there waiting for her to wake up, she would go and sit on my bed and waited until I came back to my room.”

Mrs. Akane was writing down what I was telling her, I didn’t know if any of what I was saying meant anything to her or not. But it must’ve meant something to her.

“So, you’re saying that Andrea, your step-aunt, right?” She started saying.

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“Okay, your aunt, had gone and woke up your sister and was playing with her. And that bothered you because that wasn’t what your routine involved. You already had a set routine and schedule and then she allegedly came and ruin that entire thing. Actually, how long did she ruin this routine, or how many times do you recall her doing that?”

“I would say that was the only time that she really messed up our routine, when I first met her, she didn’t stay with us that long. That was until my stepfather had passed away, then Andrea became an entirely different person.”

“What do you mean by she became a different person?”

“She became insistent on having us live with her for some reason. She had happened to know about my stepfather’s money and what was going to happen with it when he died and asked my mother what she was going to do with that money.”

Mrs. Akane sat back in her chair and looked like she was processing what I was telling her, however, I couldn’t read her mind, so it was unclear to me what she was thinking about. Maybe she believed me, maybe she didn’t. I wasn’t sure.

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“So, she told your mother that you all should live with her because your stepfather passed away? Why would she do that? Couldn’t your mother take care of you and your sister? There had to be some reason why your aunt insisted on that sudden action.”

“Well, my mother is very sick. And after my stepfather died, it was almost like she lost all will to live basically. I asked her why she decided on living with Andrea, but she said that she could use the extra help or that it would be better for us if we did that. I was skeptical about that, but I couldn’t really say anything at the time because I was so young. But if I was the age that I am now, I would have told her that we didn’t need Andrea’s help and that there was something off about her.”

“Alright. So, let’s skip forward a bit. You go to live with Andrea and her daughter. What happened during your that time up till their disappearance a few days ago?”

I sat back myself and pondered on her question. All of those years were literally just a blur, nothing really happened. I just sat there and did practically nothing, went to a different school, basically did the same thing that I did before leaving our home.

“Nothing really… happened during the five-year block while living with them. I basically lived my life the way that I did before I lived with them. I went to a different school, had a hard time making new friends though. Looking after my mother and sister, doing menial stuff around the house. Things like that. I mean, I pretty much did all the work while everyone else did nothing, it was really weird.”

“Did anything feel off to you about Andrea or Elise at any point?”

“No, but there was one time prior to us living with them that Elise allegedly did something to my sister.”

Mrs. Akane perked up and eagerly grabbed her pen.

“Really? What did she do?” She asked intrigued.

“She was, I guess playing with my sister and then I saw her hold a lighter towards her and then looked like she whispered something to her. All of a sudden, my sister started crying. When my parents came upstairs, I told them that Elise had held a lighter near Desi and whispered something to her that made her cry. However, when they questioned her, she said that she didn’t do anything like that and that I was lying.”

“Did they believe you?”

“No, they didn’t, they took Elise’s word over mine for some reason. I was adamant that she did those things to my sister, but no one believed me. Since I allegedly couldn’t prove that she did it, or that no one saw her do it. They didn’t believe me.”

“That wouldn’t make sense. Did they ask your sister if any of those things were true?”

I never actually thought about that. It never crossed my mind to have my mother ask Desi if Elise did those things to her.

“No, they didn’t. I wasn’t thinking about that at the time. However, I feel that even if they asked her about what had happened; she wouldn’t have said anything because of whatever Elise did or said to her.” I said.

“So, did anything else happen after that event?”

“Yes, I went to my room, and I guess I dozed off. But then I was woken up to a voice talking to me.”

“A voice?”

“Yeah, I thought it was in my head. But then it started asking me about what had happened earlier with Elise and my sister. I thought it was my sister talking to me, but the voice was too deep to be my sister. However, I couldn’t see the person because it was so dark. But I knew that there was someone standing there.”

“Then what happened?”

“Then the voice asked me if I liked my stepfather’s family, then I said that I didn’t like them at all. Then they said alright and that was it. I didn’t hear anything else after that. And then it went all black.”

The room was starting to get hot, maybe because I was sweating about telling Mrs. Akane about what was going on with my family. However, I was starting to have second thoughts about Andrea and Elise. The way it sounds, it felt like what they were doing was a coincidence or was just in my head. I couldn’t wrap my head around it. All those events were so weird, the voice talking to me. Elise’s letters, Andrea knowing about my mother’s appointments. All of it must’ve been a coincidence, there was no way that they were doing this intentionally.

Maybe I was just making up things. I didn’t know anymore, I felt like I was just talking out my ass at that point. Making a situation out of nothing, potentially lying about the events that happened.

Was I seeking attention? Was I just crazy?

I was starting to feel an overwhelming sense of anxiety rush over me, I couldn’t control it. I was grabbing my head and I started hyperventilating. I slowly fell into a downward spiral.

“Tyler, are you alright?” Mrs. Akane asked rubbing my back. “Try to breathe.”

“I—I—It was all a lie. None of that stuff happened. I—I—It was all in my head. The letters, Elise holding that lighter to Desi’s face. The voices. It was all a lie. I can’t believe it, what have I done?” I said with tears running down my face.

“I’m going to call someone in here to take you to the hospital, okay?”

Mrs. Akane quickly got up and ran out of the room to go and get someone.

“Wait! Don’t! Please! I can’t… I don’t know what’s happening anymore…” I barely managed to say.

Everything was going black, I laid in a fetal position with my hands around my head trying to block out the sound of everything around me. I felt that I was having a mental breakdown or an anxiety attack at that point. Everything was literally crashing down on me.

Was everything that happened a lie? Was I lying to myself? My parents? Desi? Everyone?

I had no one to turn to, the police couldn’t help me. I couldn’t help Desi; I couldn’t help my mother. I had failed everyone.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something, I was too distraught to look over at what it was. But then it started moving toward me. I looked to see a person, or at least that was what I thought it was.

“I knew you couldn’t save me, Tyler.” The person said. “I tried to tell you that a long time ago.”

The voice sounded very familiar. It sounded like Desi’s voice, but when I looked up to see if it was her, there wasn’t anyone there. That caused me to play into a deep depression and made me lose my mind even more. Desi wasn’t around, it was uncertain where she was. She could have been anywhere. Andrea took them somewhere; I just didn’t know where they took them.

The door opened and a pair of paramedics came in and asked me if I was alright. I couldn’t respond, I was too far gone to say anything to them. Everything was slowly starting to go black, and it was then that I knew that I had failed them.

I had failed my mother; I had failed Desi.

I had failed myself…